


What Actually Happens When A Dragon Is Exalted

by Gamerdog



Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Basically Just A Story About My Characters, Dragons, Flight Rising Fanfic, Unpopular Game Fanfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 11:42:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16722684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamerdog/pseuds/Gamerdog
Summary: In the world of dragons, clans serve an all-powerful dragon attuned to an element. This is mostly done by 'exalting' clan members; sending them to directly serve their patron dragon in their mythical realm. No dragon has ever returned from there, so no dragon really knows what's there.Today, a young dragon will find out.





	What Actually Happens When A Dragon Is Exalted

For as long as anyone could remember, there were dragons. Dragons that lived in clans, groups usually formed around a few closely-knit families. Each clan was part of a bigger group, called a Flight, which served an all-powerful mythical dragon of a certain element. Fire, water, plague, earth, just to name a few. With each element came special abilities excusive to them, like fire-breath or the ability to summon a blinding flash of light.  
The Flights were in constant competition with each other, each trying to out-do the other in their devotion to the dragon they serve. The most common way to do so is to exalt other dragons. Exalting them, by sending their friends or family to directly serve under their dragon deity.  
Where they go, or how they do that is unknown to most dragons. Since nobody ever comes back, there's noone to tell them what lies in the mysterious exalted realm. 

Today, one dragon will discover the truth about what lies beyond.

 

Night has fallen on the Lightning Territory. Wild creatures and monsters frolick in the darkness, their glowing eyes or scales flashing dimly here and there across the rocky plains. The sounds of the nightlife join to form a strange harmony.

 

A dragon flies over the land, it's large shadow cast on the ground scaring away nearby animals. The ruby-colored dragon glided through the air, not in too much of a hurry. She flew at a leisurely pace, while every once in a while peering down to check on her little passenger.

That passenger being a day-old hatchling, her precious cargo she holds carefully and tightly in her claws.

The little periwinkle-scaled Mirror dragon was dozing softly, her four eyes gently closed and long ears flopped down on either side of her head. Her gentle sighs were drowned out by the whooshing of the wind and the larger dragon's wingbeats.

The larger dragon had being flying for an hour, and at last, came upon what she was looking for: a forest. The red Tundra dragon sighed in relief and started to make her descent into the thick of the forest. She made extra-sure to not disturb the hatchling as she landed, holding her close to her chest and trying to land a little more softly than usual. 

 

She held out the little dragon and smiled, seeing it was still fast asleep, and now had one of it's ears flopped over it's eyes like a sloppy blindfold. Stifling a chuckle, the Tundra dragon sat down in a comfortable spot on the ground and lay the hatchling close to herself as she relaxed and started to drift off into sleep.

 

The dragon awoke with a start. She quickly looked around, baring her teeth in defense as she tried to find the source of the noise that woke her up much earlier than she had wanted. She quickly realized that it was the sound of an oncoming storm, the thunder rumbling again as if to re-emphasize it's presence. 

 

The ruby-furred dragon stared at the dark clouds, before being snapped out of heconcentration by a small nudge to her side. She looked down at the little Mirror dragon and smiled. The Mirror dragon giggled and smiled back, making gibberish noises as she started to play with the older dragon's tail. She batted at it like a cat, trying to catch the pink fluff-tipped thing with her tiny claws. 

As the sky let out another rumble, the hatchling yelped and ran over to the older dragon, hiding underneath her pink fur covered wings. The Tundra dragon pulled her wings a little closer to her, sweeping the hatchling right next to her with it. She felt the little dragon's talons latch onto her calf and tried not to wince in pain at the needle-sharp talons dug into her.

She ran her claws gently along the hatchling, muttering assurances and comforting words to her. All the while, the storm clouds drew closer until they were just overhead.

The wind started to pick up. The Tundra dragon's fur ruffled in the wind, and the hatchling clung closer to her.  
The ruby-colored dragon knew her time had come. She un-latched the hatchling from her leg and leapt into the air, her precious cargo in her claws once again.  
She pumped her wings hard, rising slowly at first, but eventually getting high up enough to get into the clouds. 

As she entered the storm clouds, she saw a large dragon in the middle of it all. It was a beautiful Ridgeback dragon, with teal scales and bone white spines trailing down it's back and tail. Across it's chest was a strange bag, that looked big enough to hold a small dragon. It had a long, nose-like spine coming off of it's snout, which the Tundra dragon found quite odd. As she approached it, she tried to imagine how hard everyday tasks would be with one of those on her. Just the image of bumping into walls got her laughing a little.

She leaned forward, still flapping her furred wings as she tried to stay aloft in place until she faced the mysterious dragon. As she looked closely, the other dragon's bright blue eyes caught her gaze. They were the same color as her's, meaning that this was another Lightning dragon.  
"H-Hi," she said, a bit nervous with this encounter. She had been told how this was going to go down, but this was not how she imagined it.  
"Hello to you too," the teal dragon replied.  
His gaze traveled down from the Tundra dragon's face to the hatchling in her claws. "So, this is the hatchling that's being exalted, right?"  
"Oh, yeah." said the ruby furred dragon. She looked at the little Mirror dragon in her claws. Its eyes were wide with what she could only describe as a mix of fear and awe. It didn't know whether to hide in fear or cry out in amazement. It's not every day a mysterious dragon comes to meet you in a mass of storm clouds.  
A few seconds passed in silence, before the Tundra dragon realized what was supposed to happen. "Oh, wait. Is this the part where I'm supposed to hand her over to you?"  
The teal dragon snorted. "Yes, that would be nice, please. I mean, that is why I'm here."  
The Tundra dragon started to make her was over to where the Ridgeback was, then stopped. "Wait. I need..... can I just have a moment with her. Y'know, to say goodbye?"  
"Take all the time you need." said the male. "Just, not too long, cause I've got somewhere to be soon...."  
The Tundra dragon nodded, then held the hatchling up, facing her, so she could look it in the eyes.  
"Hey little guy. This is gonna be weird, but it's for the best, ok? Aunty Xylant's gonna have you stay with this nice dragon for a while, in a magical place far away."  
The Mirror dragon turned it's head quizzically, not fully understanding what was going to happen. All it said was "zylan", which was as close to the Tundra dragon's name as the hatchling ever got.  
"I know, little one, I know. Don't be scared. You're going to have so much fun! And soon, I'll be there too, so don't miss me too much, alright?"  
The hatchling reached out with it's front claws, touching her aunt's face gently, like a baby.  
"I'll miss you." The Tundra dragon started to feel sadness well up inside her, and tried to hold back her tears as she gave the hatchling one last hug.

Xylant closed the distance between her and the teal dragon in a few wingbeats. She held out the little dragon, and the other dragon took it with both claws. She then let out a sigh, knowing what was going to come next.  
The teal dragon turned the hatchling around in his claws, looking at it with a small smile. "She's very beautiful. What's her name?"  
"Aegesy"  
"Aegesy, what an interesting name. I've never heard that one before." He looked at the hatchling, a calm smile on his face. "Well, that just means I'll remember it more!"  
Xylant chuckled a little. "Well then, I guess I'll see you around.. Uh, what's your name again?"

"Vello," said the Ridgeback dragon.  
"Well, Vello, thank you for this. Please remember to take good care of her for us."  
The male nodded, and with that, the ruby-furred dragon backed off, then folded back her wings and dropped out of sight,out of the clouds. 

Vello watched her leave, feeling a pang of sadness in him.

A few moments passed, before the hatchling piped up. "Where's Zylan? Zylan!" she cried, unaware that her aunt was already gone.

The Ridgeback dragon gave a sigh. "She's gone, Aegesy. You're going to be with me now."

The Mirror dragon stared at him with wide, sky-blue eyes. It seemed that she just didn't fully understand. She then gazed out into the clouds, as if she expected to see Xylant pop up any second now. But she never did. She was gone, whether the hatchling understood that or not.

Vello could just hear the little dragon start to cry, her shoulders shaking with each tiny sob. He tried to calm her down, first by gently caressing her head, then whispering reassuring words to her, but neither of them seemed to work for long. His giant claws dwarfed the hatchling in comparison, and Vello took extra care to be gentler than normal, since he could easily hurt her.

Eventually, Vello gave up trying to calm her down, and gently put her into the bag across his chest, making sure to tighten it so she wouldn't slip out. He then closed his wings and dropped out of the storm clouds. The wind whipped at his wings as he flew faster, going closer to the trees, until with one strong push, he launched himself back up into the air, now pumping his wings to get to a comfortable height.

He tried his best to block out the hatchling's sobs, focusing on the sound of the wind. This wasn't his first time, so he didn't have much trouble doing so. Still, he felt bad for the little one. The next few days were going to be rough for both of them.


End file.
